Sonya the Warrior – Issue #1

Some of our older, more mature readers might remember the crimson-tressed warrior maiden that took the Comic book world by storm 30 years ago. Sonya Crimson was a short-lived comic series, published by the small independent Saturn Comics before their messy demise at the hands of one of the larger Comic book conglomerates. Small publishers were hard-pressed to keep their head above water as the Big two (not to be named) ruled the landscape with two iron fists. The one jewel in the Saturn Comics crown was Sonya Crimson, a series about a female warrior’s adventures in a land before time. The series ran for 31 issues and at one point was the #1 selling comic, outselling all of the big two’s books. The character became a cultural phenomenon, spawning toys, games and even having her face plastered on coffee mugs and t-shirts. At the time there was even talk of a TV series, until the Saturn Comics Group closed their doors and the character of Sonya Crimson faded into obscurity…Until just recently that is. A young woman by the name of Agnes Porter never forgot the character that her Mother had introduced her to when she was just a wee girl.

“My Mother had collected all the comics when she was young,” Agnes tells us. “She even had the action figure that was popular in the stores back then. She gave everything to me when I was a small girl and I would pretend that I was Sonya, fighting all sorts of horrendous creatures and evil-doers.”

She continues,”The comics are long gone and, somehow I lost the Sonya action figure. I never found out what happened to her, but I never forgot her.”

Now Agnes is all grown up and through her cosplaying her childhood hero, Sonya Crimson, she has reignited the interest of fandom and geeks everywhere in this long forgotten character. Sonya’s popularity has skyrocketed once again and it is all thanks to this young forthright woman with the short crimson hair making appearances at Comic conventions and special events everywhere dressed as the crimson she-demon herself. Because of her faith and tenacity, a new Sonya Crimson comic has been launched by a newly reformed Saturn Comics Group. The book is chock full of those horrendous creatures and evil-doers that Agnes fought so courageously in her fantasies as a young girl. The star of the book is as colourful and endearing as she was in that more innocent age of thirty years ago and the stories are a refreshing change in this era of so-called superheroes who have bloated egos, cloying angst, dubious motivations and muddy morality. Let’s hope that Sonya will be with us for a long time to come! 9 out of 10 stars

khelatar, In my comprehensive (and created on the fly just this minute) timeline of Oddly Aroused, I figure that Agnes has been cosplaying Sonya for about two years at present. Time enough for a mini-series to come out and for Trudy to begin cosplaying the faux Sonya.

Thanks, Doug! It would be cool to pick up a copy of a book that chronicles the adventures of Agnes, but the character of Sonya is a thinly disguised tribute to the Robert E. Howard/Roy Thomas created Red Sonja. In my little alternate world, it is Sonya Crimson’s adventures that young Agnes admires and tries to emulate in her cosplaying. But if I could pull it off and retain an originality all her own, I’d love to see a comic like that 🙂